Grantham Church runs and operates a small art gallery as part of our Worship Arts ministry. Our inaugural show, in May of 2004, was part of the first annual Worship Arts Weekend, when we began an ambitious calendar of exhibitions.

The purpose of the art gallery is to celebrate the creative artists’ unique contribution to the Christian community through creating images that are a thoughtful response to God, a reflection of His beauty, or meditations that are a blessing to the church.

We believe that the arts are a vital part of our community’s life and worship, and the visual arts in particular are important.

Art sometimes helps tell those important stories and brings a reflective or meditative perspective to ideas that permeate the life of the Christian in our broken world.

That’s why, in 2004, we set aside space for an art gallery, and every other year we have a show that invites artists from our community to submit their recent artwork for display. We welcome artists of faith who are interested in sharing their work, regardless of theme, medium, or style. In the past we have displayed a variety of artwork— photography, paintings, drawings, quilts, jewelry, and pottery.

Our goals:• Learn to better appreciate the artists as a member of the faith community• Support the artist and the art lover by providing space to show and enjoy art• Dialogue on a more meaningful level on the issues surrounding faith and art in our culture• Incorporate more artistic expressions into the life of the church, its worship services and the lives of the community.

Current Gallery Exhibit

January 12 to MARCH 30, 2019

Watercolorsby Pam Wenger

We are pleased to announce an exhibition of watercolors by Pam Wenger, a local artist who upon retirement began exploring watercolor as a medium, and quickly mastered the form. She has won numerous awards from state-wide, regional and international watercolor societies. She regularly teaches classes and leads workshops in portraiture and still life painting.

COMING LATER THIS YEAR

APRIL - JUNE 2019

Community Art Exhibition

his Spring we will exhibit the recent artwork by the broader community. We especially encourage children to submit their work for this show. We will have a workshop to teach how to mount and frame your artwork. We have about 20 frames available for young or starving artists who may need a little assistance too show their work. If you are an artist who wants to share your work with the community, please download the Call for Entries from the church. All deadlines and requirements are spelled out on that form which can be downloaded as a pdf by clicking this link.

Recent Gallery Exhibits

OCTOBER 20 to DECEMBER 31, 2018

ASSISIWorks on Paper by Brenton Good

Brenton Good, M.F.A.is associate professor of art and chair of the department of art and design at Messiah College. Brenton has been working for years in the mediums of printmaking and painting and his work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally. He created one quick ink sketch on a trip to Assisi in June 2016. He writes, “this one drawing reemerged as a solitary black and white relief print, which then transformed into a variety of color monoprints, recast once again as geometric two-part diptychs, only to eventually arrive as an etched line hidden within a painting. After each step the image appeared to be exhausted until a new approach inadvertently revealed itself once again."

August 15 to October 20, 2018

Imanuel / God With Us: The Wonder of the IncarnationCurated by Sarah Colago and Sandra Bowden

Grantham Church hosted another Bowden Collections traveling exhibition that focuses on the life of Jesus. Immanuel/God with Us: The Wonder of the Incarnation celebrates Jesus’ life on earth seen through the eyes and imagination of artists. The exhibition begins with the Annunciation and birth of the Savior, follows His ministry, and then moves through His Passion and Resurrection, culminating with his Ascension. Using a wide variety of media, twenty-three artists from ten countries picture Christ’s earthly life. These 26 artworks come together to offer the viewer a rich experience of seeing afresh Jesus’ birth, death and resurrection.

Immanuel God/God with Us includes art from eleven countries, such as, Dominican Republic, Japan, France, Austria, Germany, Netherlands, Slovakia, Mexico, England, Panama, and the United States. The pieces on display include paintings, embroidered molas, etchings, woodcuts, tempera, serigraphs, and woodcarving.

APRIL 20 - JULY 20, 2018

Prints by Donald J. Forsythe and Christine A. Forsythe

This exhibition by Messiah College founding art department faculty members features 17 prints created during time spent in Ballycastle, County Mayo, Ireland in 2010. Christine presents monotypes on handmade paper inspired by the coastline. Don worked with a salt-etched whiskey tin found on the shoreline, and created unique intaglio-wiped and relief rolled images in limited editions.

Summer 2017

For the second half of summer 2017, the gallery featured the artwork of Kelle J. Alonso, a local artist who lives in Grantham with her husband, Dan, and three daughters: Lucy, Lily, and Maddie. She grew up in Dillsburg, and studied art at Houghton College in Houghton, NY, concentrating in painting. Kelle says, “I've been making art since my mom let me use scissors and glue. With the arrival of my first daughter in 2006, I began working in the art of building character and beauty in my children.”

Witness to Faith: The Biblical Art of Sadao Watanabe

Japan’s foremost Christian artist, Sadao Watanabe (1913-1996) converted from Buddhism to Christianity at 17 years old. He soon combined his new faith with an interest in preserving the traditional Japanese folk art of stencil dyeing, or katazome, by creating colorful representations of biblical scenes that he hoped would speak to his people. He said, "My task is to stand within the artistic tradition of Japan…Theology will not take deep root in Japanese soil if it is merely an import."